US EditionHarvard Morgue Manager Sentenced to 8 Years for Selling Remains
Cedric Lodge received eight years and Denise Lodge one year for stealing and selling body parts from Harvard donors, earning up to $95,000, prosecutors said.
- On Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann sentenced Cedric Lodge, former Harvard Medical School morgue manager, to eight years, capping a two-and-a-half-year scandal.
- Between 2018 and 2022 investigators say Lodge stole organs, brains, skin, hands, feet, spines and skulls from donated cadavers at Harvard Medical School, with arrests in 2023 exposing the four-year scheme.
- Prosecutors say he sold parts to buyers met online, including Facebook groups, and at least once invited a purchaser into the morgue, selling two dissected faces for $600 while Denise Lodge shipped parts and accepted PayPal payments, earning an estimated $40,000 to $95,000.
- Both defendants were ordered to begin their prison terms on Jan. 16, with Denise Lodge sentenced to one year and a day; more than 400 donor families may have been affected as civil suits against Harvard proceed.
- Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Alisan V. Martin citing online chat evidence and saying the conduct `shocks the conscience`, while Patrick Casey said `There is undoubtedly a level of numbness or lack of appreciation for the sensitivities of the general public.
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How did the two respond?The accused chief, Cedric Lodge, aged 58, was arrested in May 2023, along with his wife, Denise Lodge, at 65 years of age.He was arrested for one year and six months of detention, accused of actively supporting the illegal sale of human remains seized by the sea.Cedric Lodge, according to federal investigators, would have been involved between 2018 and 2022, in an extended network operating at national level and engaged i…
The head of the morgue at Harvard University Medical School in the United States has been sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing human remains to sell them, a ruling that extends to his wife, sentenced to one year in prison. The U.S. Department of Justice has indicated in a statement that the man, identified as Cedric Lodge, 58, has pleaded guilty to stealing the remains, including organs, skin, limbs, faces and even heads. These events…
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Former morgue manager, wife sentenced for selling stolen human remains to Berks man, others
The couple sold the remains and shipped them to buyers in other states or the buyer would take possession directly, federal officials say.
The scandal shook Harvard University: an employee has been stealing human remains from the medical institute for years. Now a court is determining his sentence. Also the wife of the former head of the morgue must be locked up.
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